Archive for the ‘mike axisa’ tag

Every year I say i’ll stay away from the Mock Draft links … and every year I come back. Here’s a running collection; i’ve listed their top-5 and then who they project the Nats to take at #25 (if they project out that far). Honestly, projecting even the top 5 has been folly in year’s past; last minute changes occur all the time and drastically change the top of every draft. Look no further than the 2011 draft that netted the Nats presumed top pick Anthony Rendon.

I’ll continue to add in mocks as they get published post-posting up until the draft.

However this year you’ll notice that the same general collection of names are listed in nearly every top 5 collection. Here’s a quick summary of those top-5 guys.

Collegiate top-5 names:

Brendan McCay: 1b/lhp Louisville. All-American as a Soph. 2016 Collegiate National team. Good two-way player likely being drafted as a pitcher.

Alex Faedo: rhp Florida. 2016 Collegiate National team; #1 starter from Florida, less known for developing pitchers but who did have two 1st round arms drafted just last year (A.J. Puk, Dane Dunning).

Jeren Kendall OF Vanderbilt. 2016 Collegiate National team; was presumptive 1-1 before really struggling at the plate in 2017, opening the door for one of the above college arms likely going 1-1.

J.B. Bukauskas rhp UNC via Ashburn, VA. 2016 Collegiate National team, fantastic numbers leading UNC to its first national seed in a while. Considered undersized (he’s 6’0″) but has a big arm; widely projected at #6 to Oakland but does get some top-5 press.

Tristan Beck rhp Stanford who did not play in 2017 due to injury but was a pre-season all-american; some thought he may get picked as an injury stash like we’re seeing more and more.

Adam Haseley, 1B/rhp from UVA who has massively improved his draft stock this year. He went from being just a good player to being mentioned in the top 5 in some mocks. I don’t think he goes top-5, but he’s gone before the top-10 is done.

Prep top-5 names:

Hunter Greene: ss/rhp Notre Dame High, CA (UCLA commit). 2015 18U team as a Jr., Standout at PG Nationals 2016. Two-way talent, 95-97 on the mound but also a fantastic hitter. 18U National team trials. Area code star. Likely getting drafted as an arm, might be the first prep RH starter to go 1-1. Stopped pitching mid-way through the spring though, presumably to save his arm for his first pro season.

Shane Baz, rhp from Concordia HS, TX (TCU): fast mover, mid-90s big righty in the same prep construction from the Houston area as the likes of Josh Beckett, Jamison Taillon and Tyler Kolek. I don’t think he’s a top-5 pick but should be top-10.

Here’s the Mock draft collection that i’ve saved over the past months. If you know of one I’m missing, let me know and I’ll add it in.

MLBPipeline (Jim Callis) 2017 Mock Draft v4.0 6/9/17: Wright, Greene, Gore, McKay, Lewis. Nats on Clarke Schmidt, a good RH starter from South Carolina who had to have TJ surgery (sound familiar?). However, in his mock this leaves Houck, Pearson and Carlson on the board, and I think the Nats would take any of those three ahead of TJ guy.

MLBPipeline (Jim Callis) 2017 Mock Draft v5.0 6/12/17: McKay, Greene, Gore, Lewis, Hiura. Wow. Nats taking Seth Romero, a LH starter who was just kicked off of UHouston’s team, his 3rd “strike” with the team. Sounds like a winner to me and I hope the Nats are not foolish enough to take a 3-time suspended college player. Problem is, he’s a Scott Boras client, and people are worried that Boras is talking to the ownership again…

D1Baseball (Frankie Piliere) 2017 Mock Draft v2.0 dated 6/9/17: Wright, Greene, Lewis, McKay, Gore. Nats taking Romero. Problem with this mock: the next 3 after Romero are Carlson, Peterson and Lange, and I’d have to think the Nats would take any of those three over Romero.

HeroSports.com (Chris Crawford) 2017 Mock Draft v4.0 dated 5/12/17: McKay, Greene, Wright, Bukauskas, Beck. Nats taking Jordon Adell, a prep OF from Kentucky who entered the year projected near the top of the draft but whose stock has fallen precipitously. I could see the Nats having him ranked high and (much like what happened with Lucas Giolito) them taking the chance if Adell is still available after being a top-5 rumored guy entering the 2017 season.

PerfectGame.org (Brian Sakowski) 2017 Mock Draft v1.0 dated 5/10/17: Greene, Wright, Lewis, McKay, Beck. Nats taking Hans Crouse, a prep RH starter from California. Crouse is good, but I can’t see the team taking a prep 1st rounder if the likes of Houck and Lange are on the board.

SI.com (Jay Jaffe) Mock Draft v2.0 dated 6/12/17: Wright, Greene, Gore, McKay, Lewis. Nats again on Romero. This mock leaves Pearson, Houck, and Carlson on the board, which I have a hard time believing would happen (that the Nats would take head case Romero over any of those three).

Seedlings to the Stars/Calltothepen.com (Benjamin Chase) Mock Draft Final dated 6/12/17: Greene, Wright, Gore, Lewis, Adell. Nats on Griffith Canning, UCLA’s friday starter who projects as a slight framed #3 starter. I saw him in the CWS regionals and wasn’t terribly impressed. Chase’s final mock is kind of out there; he’s the only guy who has Greene 1-1 and he has a ton of guys normally being projected to the Nats very early.

TheBigLead.com (Ryan Phillips) Mock Draft v1.0 6/7/17: Wright, McKay, Greene, Lewis, Gore. Nats taking Sam Carlson, a prep RHP from Minnesota who is highly ranked on every board that I see, but has some risk being a skinny RHP from a cold-weather state whose entire profile is based on his showcase results. I’d guess the Nats would prefer a college arm.

I think the risk-averse Twins will go with a solid college arm at #1, picking Wright. This lets the rebuilding Reds at #2 take the guy who is probably the best player in the draft in Greene, who might just be the next Dwight Gooden. At #3 San Diego can afford to take a prep kid since they too are rebuilding, taking Lewis. At #4, Tampa takes the solid, fast moving McKay and internally debates whether to put him on the mound or in the field. At #5, Atlanta can’t help themselves (they love taking local guys) and takes the North Carolina prep product Gore, who might be the 2nd best player in this draft. Oakland passes on Bukauskas thanks to his two late season iffy outings and goes with the next best collegiate arm on their board.

My top 5: Wright, Greene, Lewis, McKay, Gore.

ACTUAL DRAFT Results (added after the draft): Lewis, Greene, Gore, McKay, Wright. Reportedly McKay wouldn’t take an under-slot deal at 1-1, so Minnesota popped Lewis instead, allowing McKay to go 4th to Tampa where he still probably sets a bonus record. Lewis going 1-1 shakes up the order of the top 5, but not the top 5 themselves.

Who are the Nats going to take at #25:

I like the projections for a solid college arm, so if Houck or Lange is there, look for that as the pick. I could be talked into Schmidt as another TJ reclamation project. If a highly regarded prep falls (Adell, Hall, Crouse, and especially Carlson) look for that as a longer-term play pick. Notice not one projector puts them on a bat, so the talk of MSU’s Brent Rooker seems unlikely here. I think they’re set on a polished college arm to quickly move up and start to fill holes that will soon be left when the likes of Tanner Roark and Gio Gonzalez hit free agency.

Quick thoughts on the Tyler Clippard for Yunel Escobar deal that went down Wednesday night.

Bummed to see Clippard go. I got a chance to play golf with him a few years back and he’s a real nice guy. Nothing but a gentleman on the course, just a guy who liked playing golf in his spare time. The thing that made me laugh the most from the game was his telling us that he rides his bike to the ball park every night … and then back home at midnight, through some rather sketchy streets around the stadium, all the way back to the townhouse he shared with Drew Storen on capitol hill. If you’ve never been to Oakland’s stadium … well lets say I hope Clippard doesn’t try to ride his bike home at night from there.

Does Clippard get a shot at the closer role in Oakland? Probably not; Sean Doolittle took over for the deposed Jim Johnson last year and did pretty well. Very well actually: a 0.7 whip and a 1.71 FIP. Not bad.

I tend to agree with the Mike Axisa CBSsports.com analysis posted here; Nats have some interesting flexibility now with Escobar. He could be the 2B starter (making the transition from SS to 2B is an easy one for a quality infielder). He could enable the team to move Ian Desmond and have Escobar be the starting shortstop until Trea Turner is ready (or proves himself not to be up to the task … Escobar is signed through 2016 with an easy 2017 option).

Is this a good trade for the Nationals? Clippard was a vital and valuable part of the bullpen; is he replaceable? Not easily. The Nats have shed two of their three best relievers from last year with no real replacements (no, i’m not counting Heath Bell) other than internal promotions. Perhaps this means we’ll see a couple of middle relief veteran signings now. I think this also could mean Blake Treinen‘s being called into reliever duty instead of being in the Syracuse rotation. Who pitches the 8th inning now? Aaron Barrett?

Even given Clippard’s value, his escalating salary did mean he made more sense as a closer for another team. Maybe that happens in Oakland regardless. Or maybe Billy Beane keeps on dealing and moves Clippard again. But the Nats plugged a hole for now and potentially for the next two years as well; a price that had to be paid for what they acquired. And lets be honest; it is probably easier to find a good right handed reliever than it is to find a MLB-average offensive shortstop.

Escobar’s offensive numbers were a tick below MLB average last year; an improvement over the presumed person he’s deposing in Danny Espinosa. What’s more of an unknown is his defense; he was excellent in 2013, awful in 2014 in terms of range factors. Since you don’t need nearly the range at 2nd, i’m guessing he’s going to be an excellent defender there by default. So to this effect, he fits the Rizzo mold. Good defender, decent offensive player.

The knock on Escobar, of course, is character. It stems from an incident in 2009 while with Toronto when he put the words “Tu ere maricon” on his eyeblack. As I noted in the comments section, I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt here, believing that the media took one of many possible interpretations of this common latin insult (and hopefully not the one he meant) and ran with it … suddenly the message and the story that remains to this day is that he used an “anti-gay slur” and that Escobar is “homophobic.” Or perhaps not: according to a wikipedia guide of Spanish profanity, the term maricon as used by Cubans in particular most likely means exactly what he’s accused of saying. I dunno; what’s the statue of limitations for making a poor decision?

Do people really think Detwiler is heading to the bullpen? Photo: Haraz Ghanbari/AP via federalbaseball.com

By now we’ve all seen the reports; the Nats have been to Puerto Rico to scoutJavier Vazquez, the veteran starter who inexplicably “retired” after an effective 2011 at the age of 34. According to Adam Kilgore‘s initial reports and as stated in other places on line Vazquez is apparently hitting the mid 90s in winter ball and is looking to possibly re-start his pro career. Kilgore reports that the Nats are looking to offer Vazquez a minor league contract with an “out clause” if he’s not assigned to the Majors by a certain date.

This out clause arrangement seems to make perfect sense for the Nats. We have a full rotation, we need starter depth in AAA, and Vazquez is a risk having been out of the league for a year, despite how good he looks in a winter ball league that rates at best at being a “weak AAA” level of talent.

What I don’t understand in some of these reports is the claim that the team would love to sign Vazquez and then drop Ross Detwiler to the bullpen. Mike Axisa from MLBtraderumors stated as much in his report and I got into it with a NY-based blogger who keeps stating that Detwiler “belongs” in the bullpen without really giving much in the way of proof.

Here’s what Detwiler did in 2012: 10-8, 3.40 ERA and a 1.22 whip in 164 1/3 innings and 27 starts. He posted a 117 ERA+, good for 12th in the league among qualified starters. He’s a lefty who averages 92-93 and can reach 96 in a division with a number of teams with lefty power (especially Philadelphia). And he saved the Nats bacon by giving the team its best post-season start in the NLCS. He is still cheap (he’s first year arbitration eligible this year), meaning he provides great value for the dollar as a starter.

Why exactly would the Nats be looking to replace Detwiler in the rotation?? And why would the team be looking at a reclamation project like Vazquez to be his replacement? Vazquez’s 2011 numbers were good (13-11, 3.69 era, 1.183 whip) but not earth shattering (106 ERA+ in 2011 after getting hammered in New York the year prior). Detwiler was a significantly better pitcher by this measure in 2012 than Vazquez was in 2011. If you had the 12th best pitcher (by ERA+) in the league installed as your 5th starter, why exactly would you be looking to replace him?

Then there’s the “personnel issues” involved with Vazquez at this point. Why did he walk away from the game? Wouldn’t you be concerned about his committment levels and his drive at this point? Why would a team want to give him anything other than a non-guaranteed deal?

Yes, I realize the team’s bullpen, as it is currently constructed, is light on left-handed relievers. We’ll ignore for the time being the fact that our existing RHPs out there mostly have good lefty splits. If you go on the assumption that the team “needs” another left handed reliever, there are certainly better ways to fill that spot than by wasting an excellent starter by putting him in the pen. Any statistical measure of player value will show you that even a medicore starter is usually “worth” more than even an excellent closer; sometimes FAR more. A quick proof: Craig Kimbrel‘s 2012 season as the Braves closer was epic and historical, and was worth a 3.6 fWAR. That would only have qualified him for 25th in the league, tied with Kyle Lohse and just ahead of our own Jordan Zimmermann. And that was for one of the best reliever seasons ever seen. Rafael Soriano was an excellent closer last year and only had an fWar of 1.2, a more typical closer number, which would have been about 77th in the league in fWAR, around what Bruce Chen and Edinson Volquez provided in 2012.

In the end, it may not matter; if Vazquez is coming back there’s plenty of teams that make much more sense for him to join that would give him a guaranteed MLB deal and a guaranteed rotation spot. Any of the bottom 4-5 teams in my Rotation Rankings would make sense. Returning to Miami would make too much sense, based on where he pitched last and proximity to his home in Puerto Rico. But it bugs me just the same that people don’t use some common sense when looking at what Detwiler gave the team last year and assuming that he is better served in the bullpen to make way for a lesser pitcher. I’ll fully admit; I have not always been a Detwiler fan. But after what he showed the team in 2012, I think you stick with him in 2013 no matter what.